Judge Appointed To Head Inquiry

A North Carolina federal prosecutor was named Monday to head the Justice Department's campaign finance task force.

Robert Conrad, who has been criminal chief of the U.S. Attorney's office in Charlotte, succeeds David Vicinanzo, who returned to New Hampshire to be with his family.

The task force was set up after the 1996 elections to investigate allegations of campaign finance abuses. Twenty-two people have been charged in the investigation.

Pilot's remains to be returned

The remains of an Air Force pilot shot down over Hanoi in 1968 have been identified and are being returned to his family for burial in the United States, the Pentagon said Monday.

The Pentagon said Air Force Col. Robert M. Elliot of Springfield, Mass., was flying his F-105D Thunderchief jet fighter Feb. 14, 1968, when it was hit by a North Vietnamese surface-to-air missile. He radioed to other pilots that he was hit and they witnessed the crash.

Residents escorted the team to where they buried the airman's remains in 1968, the statement said.

With Elliot's accounting, 2,031 servicemen still are missing from the Vietnam War.

Ivory Coast travel being discouraged

The State Department is warning U.S. citizens not to travel to Ivory Coast, a West African country where a junta has toppled an elected government.

"The crime threat is serious," the department said in a travel warning issued Monday. "The potential for extortion from rogue elements of the military remains. The occurrence of more civil unrest cannot be ruled out."

Midwest

Three ministers in family killed

SUMPTER TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- Three ministers from the same family were killed by an out-of-control car that plowed into their van along a gravel road.

The Rev. Kenneth Page, 41; his wife, the Rev. Charlene Page, 43; and her mother, the Rev. Ruthie Lathan, 62, had just given a worshipper a ride home and were waiting to back out onto the gravel road.

A car going 70 mph in a 55 mph zone hit a pillar and then slammed into the van Sunday afternoon, state police said. The car's driver, Benjamin Bidwell, 21, was critically injured.

The three ministers were from the Spiritual Israel Church and Its Army in Sumpter Township, about 25 miles from Detroit.

West

Snowmobiler lost after avalanche

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Rescuers on Monday searched for a man who may have been killed in an avalanche, authorities said.

Robert Coyne, 37, of Wasilla, Alaska, vanished in the avalanche Sunday as it swept 1,000 feet down a slope at Hatcher Pass, a recreation site about 60 miles north of Anchorage.

Coyne and other snowmobilers had been "highmarking" -- roaring up-slope in competition to mark the snow at the highest point -- when the avalanche broke loose, Alaska state troopers said.

Hatcher Pass was closed Monday to recreational users as the searchers gathered to look for Coyne.